This Thursday (April 11) is your last chance to catch Joseph King’s (frontman for the Brooklyn-based group Deadbeat Darling) last solo residency gig at the Scoot Inn. His band’s sold out some pretty high-profile joints in NYC (like the Bowery Ballroom and the Mercury Lounge), and folks in the U.K. have already taken notice. So it’s best that you do too.
But King isn’t some Yankee barnstorming our fair city. He grew up in San Antonio (and if his Wikipedia entry is to be believed, was once a Spurs ballboy), before heading off into the wide world. He formed Deadbeat Darling in 2006 after the breakup of his former band Canvas. The band released their first full-length Weight of Wandering in 2009. The U.K.’s Spearhavoc Records scooped up the band in 2011, and enlisted the help of Grammy-and-Mercury-Prize-winning producer Ken Nelson (he’s also helped recored Coldplay, Gomez, Badly Drawn Boy, Ray LaMontagne, and others) to helm the band’s 2012 sophomore full-length The Angel’s Share.
Today’s song comes straight off The Angel’s Share. It’s a peppy little number called “Surf India.” It gets the award for truth in advertising because they ain’t lyin’ about the “surf” part in the title. Lead guitarist Mohit Bhansali gets some twang that’s got The Ventures’ tone with spiky New Wave feel. The rhythm booms and bounces along. King puts some real fire in his vocals, and he’s sure to bring more Thursday at his solo show at the Scoot.
